Occupy the Bronx 101; Movement to Join Forces with Coalition

Bronx Assemblyman Jose Rivera, perhaps the most prolific videographer in the borough, shot this footage last Saturday at the Occupy the Bronx assembly in Fordham Plaza. It’s long — with a running time of 46 minutes, 54 seconds — but gives a good sense of the scene last weekend and how the Occupy movement conducts business. The third person who speaks, starting at about the 10-minute mark, is Ephraim Cruz, who sat down with BronxTalk’s Gary Axelbank on Monday evening. Cruz is a co-founder of Bronx for Change, a recently-created political organization. Another co-founder of Bronx for Change, Charlie Ramos,

Croton Facilities Monitoring Committee Tonight

The monthly Croton Facilities Monitoring Committee will be held tonight, Wednesday, Oct. 19 at the DEP outreach office, 3660 Jerome Ave. at 7 p.m. Usually, the committee meets on the third Thursday of every month, but this month, due to some apparent scheduling difficulties, it’s happening tonight.

Filipino Parish of St. Brendan’s Celebrates 17 Years

Slide show and Story By Lindsay Armstrong More than 250 people crowded into St. Brendan’s auditorium on a recent Sunday evening to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the church’s Filipino parish. Lumen Castaneda, a former resident of Norwood, founded the parish in conjunction with St. Brendan’s in 1994. The church offers a monthly mass in Tagalog, the Philippine native tongue. Head pastor, Father George Stewart says the group is a vibrant part of the larger church community. “This is a very ethnically diverse parish. We have 48 nations represented and they all add to the experience,” Stewart said. “We’re very

Living Wage Backers Seek Compromise; Second Hearing Planned for November

Supporters of a living wage bill that’s been lingering in the City Council for over a year now are making another effort to revive the lagging legislation, in a drawn-out battle with the Bloomberg administration and business leaders who say it would ultimately kill jobs. Sponsors of the proposed Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act, which would require developers receiving substantial taxpayer-funded subsidies to pay workers $10 an hour with benefits, or $11.50 without, unveiled revisions to the bill earlier this month in an attempt to compromise with critics. Whether the newly watered-down version of the legislation is enough to

Welcome to Breaking Bronx

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Breaking Bronx, the new blog produced by the Norwood News. This is still a work in progress, but essentially, this will be the space where we post breaking news stories, reports and information that didn’t make it into our print edition, multi-media efforts from our staff and freelancers, opinion and analysis from guest writers, links to relevant and important news stories, meeting and events alerts and much more. As Breaking Bronx evolves, we hope to include regular features like, for example, a local sports column or a guide to weekend events. And, of course, we

Gabriel De Los Santos, a veteran of the Occupy Wall Street movement now stretching into its second month, showed up at the first Occupy the Bronx rally at Fordham Plaza last Saturday. He held a hand-written cardboard sign, a replica of dozens he had created and distributed during the past month. It read: “Land of the Free? Hypocrisy.” Sporting a backwards Suicidal Tendencies baseball cap, sleeveless black Cannibal Corpse T-shirt and a faint wisp of a mustache, De Los Santos is 15-year-old student at Lehman High School who lives just blocks from Fordham Plaza. He was one of close to

CB7 Youth Committee Meeting Tonight

Community Board 7’s Youth Services Committe will meet tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the board office in Bedford Park, 229A E. 204th St. Here’s the agenda posted form the CB7 website: 1) FY 13 (Financial Year 2013) Capital and Expense Requests 2) FY 12 (Financial Year 2012) Goals 3) Additional Items a) Spring physical fitness event

Get Civics Lessons From Your State Senator

Before Gustavo Rivera became a state senator here in the Bronx’s 33rd District, he was an adjunct political science professor at Pace University. In fact, before catching the campaign politics bug soon after moving to New York from his native Puerto Rico for graduate school in 1998, Rivera appeared destined for a career in academia. Although he never completed his masters degree, Rivera continued to teach while serving as a campaign field operative for several politicians, including former Gov. David Paterson, Bronx State Senator Jose M. Serrano and President Obama. Tonight, Rivera slides back into his role as educator at

CB 7 Committe Meetings Tonight: Traffic/Transportation and Sanitation/Environment

There are two Community Board 7 committee meetings — Traffic/Transportation and Sanitation/Environment — tonight at the board office, 229A E. 204th St., both starting at 6:30 p.m. Here’s the agenda for Traffic/Transportation, according to the CB7 website: Old Business: Goulden Ave Update; Update on Gun Hill Road Project; Results of Consultation Hearing New Business: Bike Racks (Katz request) There’s no posted agenda for Sanitation/Environment.